My husband and I watched We’re the Millers one night, and I couldn’t stop laughing. I bought my own copy of the flick and took it with me on my next writing retreat. My crit partners couldn’t stop laughing. At least one of them borrowed the DVD from me so she could show it to her husband.

Four disparate people come together to form a fake family on holiday in Mexico in order to smuggle marijuana into the US.  Their misadventures are hilarious. In the end, we learn that blood doesn’t necessarily make family.

5 stars.

I’m surprised the movie Yesterday isn’t better known than it is. I am unfamiliar with the male lead, but the female lead is Lily James of Downton Abbey and the Guernsey Potato Peel Pie and Literary Society fame. Ed Sheeran and Kate McKinnon are also in the movie.

The plot is simple: a struggling musician, Jack,  is hit by a bus; when he comes to, it’s in a world where the Beatles never existed. The movie is a romance. It’s quirky. There’s an interesting plot twist. And while the Beatles aren’t the only thing that never existed in Jack’s new world, but the movie doesn’t hit you over the head with it. Just one or two mentions. And a funny one at the end.

Five stars.

The first time I viewed The Big Sick I was with my husband. My critique partners and I watched it again on a recent retreat. It’s a good movie. It’s a true story that takes the larger issues we in the US are facing today and brings them down to the personal level.

It’s the story of an aspiring comedian/Uber driver whose family came to the US from Pakistan and an all-American girl who meet and fall in love. But his family and heritage create problems that hurt the heroine. The heroine becomes deathly ill and is hospitalized, bringing her parents into the story.

We see how prejudice often stems from not understanding and that with effort–sometime a lot of effort–we can overcome our preconceived notions. All of this is wrapped up in a romantic comedy with laugh-out-loud moments and a happy ending.

Five stars.

I saw Waking Ned Devine for the first time not too long ago.  I had a difficult time getting into the movie, because my ears were slow to catch the cadence and nuances of the thick Irish accents. This is not an unusual problem for me. Once my brain clicked into the dialogue, I enjoyed the movie.

The story takes place in a small Irish village where someone has won the National Lottery.  We often hear “it takes a village.” We read news stories where neighbors help neighbors when disaster strikes. But what happens when someone wins the lottery and  the shock of it kills him?

Four stars.

The first time I saw THE REWRITE was with my husband who thought I’d like it because it was about a writer. He wanted to see it because it takes place at SUNY Binghamton, where he went to college. Starring Hugh Grant (eh) and Marisa Tomei (I’m a fan), I was surprised I hadn’t heard of the movie. We watched it. I recognized other actors–Allison Janney, JK Simmons, Chris Elliott. I thought, Oh, this is a cute movie.

Fast forward a year or so, and one of my critique partners found the DVD in the library and brought it on our semi-annual writing retreat. I didn’t hate the idea of watching it again; indeed, I enjoyed it more the second time around (but that may be because of a more sympathetic audience).

Hugh Grant plays a washed-up screen writer whose sole success was 15 years earlier. The only gig his agent can find for him is Writer-in-Residence at Binghamton University in upstate New York. The plot is predictable. He’s resentful, sullen, and selfish until the eternal optimism of an older single mother with two children who happens to be taking his class turns him around.

Three stars–Janney and Tomei are worth the watch.